"Festive Overture" by Shostakovich

This piece begins with a very pompous trumpet fanfare after which the strings take over without losing its grandeur. The most interesting thing about this part is that unlike most overtures that emphasize the dotted rhythm, this fanfare functions exclusively triplets. With nine full orchestra chords at the end of the fanfare the listener gets the expectation of a spectuacular chord to finish this, but Shostakovich surprises the listener by going straight into a light, dance-like allegro 4/4.

This section has some fast sixteenth note melodies that get passed from woodwinds to strings and even trumpets. This gives the song its festive quality.

The next section is able to successfully combine the festive and pompus aspects of the first two sections by having a great polyphonic structure with the low brass having an constant eighth note moving line while the strings provide the chord structure while still having a melodic form on the top line.

This is followed by the first lyrical section of the song with a very legato melody that starts in the cello and moves up to the higher strings, with a wonderful mostly offbeat accompaniment that juxtaposes the melody.

After this, everyone drops out except for pizzicato strings and snare drum (not the best combination in terms of balance, but anyway) that play the melody and then takes a back seat to a flute melody. This transitions back into the first fast melody but with a larger arrangement. After the soft foreign section, it is nice to come back to something familiar, and the next couple of minutes is a lot of repition of earlier material with some additions that bring more tension into the music.

The initial fanfare returns again, with more involvement from strings and more cymbal and drums and accents, and once again misleads the listener by having the tonic have a resolve that goes straight into the fast section again which leads into one of those terminative V-I's that never seem to end with the big timpani roll.

I like this piece because it has very beautiful melodies with a contrasting and exciting accompaniment behind it.